Slow Life
by suki1916
Summary: Klaus and Caroline have carried on a tentative friendship and then a budding romance meeting every few years across various countries spanning the course of decades. After a 75 year hiatus, Klaus decides its time to break the rules and go first. What's kept her away for so long and will he like what he finds? AU, somewhat canon. Klaroline
1. Chapter 1

So! I'm having a bit of time writing my other story right now and this idea popped into my head so I rolled with it. It's probably just a one shot, but...I have no idea. I could continue it as there's enough material but we'll see if there is any interest. Not super thrilled with the writing but I was letting it flow.

For this story, I'm ignoring season 4/5 and most of season 3 of the Originals mostly because I haven't seen it but also because I heard they were awful. It does follow the canon for the TVD for the most part.

Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

2058

"That's feels wonderful."

Decades of tracing his fingers over her skin and he had never waned in his astonishment of how smooth she was. He ghosted over the curve of her bare spine, her head pillowed in her crossed arms. Curls spilled across her shoulders and down her back as he tucked some away and kissed the hollow of her neck. Her body was the canvas he got to paint over and over; a different landscape each time they came together.

Promises of last loves aside, he actually hadn't expected her to make him wait as long as he continued to do so. But this was Caroline Forbes he was in fact dealing with and she was nothing if not thorough. Years as a widow lead into a tentative friendship with him. Emails first, then text messages. They had graduated into phone calls and video chat that spanned nearly twenty years after their tentative and entangled friendship had bloomed.

2022

" _ **If I'm in London, where do I go for the best shopping?"**_

" _ **Well hello to you too, love." Klaus was taken by surprise by her voice flittering through the line. "You're across the pond?"**_

 _ **She cleared her throat. "Look, if this was a mistake- god, I knew I should have called Rebekah. Even if she hates me she wouldn't let me go dressed badly."**_

" _ **Where as with me, I'd rather you be not dressed at all." To his surprise a laugh greeted him. "It's good to hear from you, Caroline."**_

" _ **We talk often enough, Klaus." She reminded him gently. "Although, it's annoying nice to hear your voice. Did you have any idea how pleasant you can actually sound without threatening to rip someone's heart out?"**_

He listened as she spoke of her growing girls-the pains of raising teenagers and the fear of not measuring up as well as their actual mother might have. Alaric was tense subject as Klaus never really got over the envy of their sham engagement. Bonnie and Elena became large topics of coverage; their marriages and expanding families.

2030

" _ **Ric doesn't see it, but I swear sometimes when Josie is laughing I see Kai's smirk. It gives me the heebie-jeebies."**_

" _ **I think I would have liked to have met this chap." Klaus simpered from his side of the computer screen.**_

" _ **Why? Because he would give your psychosis a run for its money?" she blinked her annoyance. "Anyway, did I tell you Elena and Damon are pregnant again? And honestly, thank god. Pregnant Elena is mean Elena and it's great amusement to see human Damon not be able to compel his way out of that."**_

" _ **If you had just allowed me to be rid of him years ago-"**_

 _ **She pointed her finger at the screen with a scowl. "We talked about this. Friends don't kill other people friends. That's not how this works."**_

" _ **You know, you come equipped with a bloody large list of rules for being your friend."**_

" _ **Well you're a vampire, so suck it up."**_

She still missed her mother dreadfully; had cried for hours into the phone when she found her mother's badge in a box when she moved once. She had told Klaus her secret comfort was sitting in front of the fireplace, her mother's leather jacket pulled tight around her. It wasn't often, but every once in a while, she would speak in soft and pained whispers of Stefan. There was a long simmering resentment there but she would never utter a single word in relation to it.

2038

 _ **Through the phone screen, he could see her fiddling with the ring on the chain around her neck. "Something on your mind, sweetheart?"**_

 _ **She licked her bottom lip; another small tell. "Lizzie wants to wear my wedding dress." Her forehead crinkled in the center. "And I**_ **want** _ **her to wear it. I just wasn't expecting it. I wasn't expecting to-"**_

" _ **Still be in mourning?" the words were just as painful for him to say as it was for her to hear. His voice was thick as he continued, his jaw clenched. "It's perfectly understandable."**_

" _ **Actually, what I was going to say was that I wasn't expecting to feel so…" she searched for the right word and looked at him directly. "…free. Like maybe giving the dress a new life somehow releases me from the one I was holding onto so much."**_

" _ **What were you were holding onto?"  
**_

" _ **A memory." She breathed. "I feel apart after my mom died. I even flipped my humanity off and I knew I couldn't, and wouldn't do that this time. I had the girls to think of, and it would have been selfish of me." A small sheen of tears glossed over her eyes and she sniffled once as the gained her bearing. "And I'm not selfish, unlike some people. I felt like I had to honor his memory and his sacrifice. But this is a new start."**_

" _ **For the dress." He hedged carefully, unwilling to get his hopes up.**_

" _ **And for me." She smiled and shrugged, the light finally radiating from her face once more. "Maybe more."**_

On her part, she took great pleasure in advising and admonishing him on his various quarrels and quests he found himself in. After a while, and he would never admit to it, but he found her to be the voice in his head-quelling tempers and forcing him to think through his actions. There were many supernatural beings throughout the Quarter and the world that owed their lives to Caroline. Furthermore, she had helped guide his way through the depths and doubts of fatherhood.

2031

" _ **I have not only a prom to plan and chaperone, but I have two teenage daughters that have a graduation in a few weeks." Caroline raged into the phone as she tucked it between her cheek and her shoulder. "I don't have time to chaperone you in your wild antics across the swamps of the bayou."**_

" _ **Funny. I don't seem to recall asking for your input into the matter, love." He gritted out on the other end as Caroline uttered a groan of frustration. "Far be it for me to put a dent in you party planning duties."**_

" _ **I resent that." She snapped dropping the box in her hands onto the floor beneath her and taking hold of her phone once more. "It's not just a party, thank you very much. You would know that if you spoke with your daughter more. I know your like a million years old, but there's this new technology called a cell phone."**_

" _ **I'm aware." His tone was flat and Caroline could picture his narrowed eyes. "I chat with Hope often enough. Besides, I was explicitly told I wasn't to step foot back into Mystic Falls. Caroline Forbes does not dole out idle threats."**_

" _ **Don't get cute with me, Klaus." Caroline sighed. "Stop killing people and Elijah won't have to call me to try and corral you in line. Do you think maybe you could try using your words instead of your hands to rip out hearts and snap necks?"**_

" _ **The bloody witches started-"**_

" _ **Oh, for crying out loud!" she interrupted, her hand finding her hip. "Be the bigger person instead of the big bad wolf for once."**_

She found amusement in his siblings' squabbles and often found herself in the middle of them. Elijah was stuck on a pedestal Klaus was content to constantly try and knock over. Rebekah was as spoiled and petulant as ever and Kol was a public nuisance even if he were entertaining. The only sane one in the lot was Freya who had settle down with a family of her own.

2028

" _ **You agreed to give up the daggers, Klaus." Hitting send she tucked her phone back into her pocket. Kol's frantic phone call had gotten her both amused and annoyed but she had promised to text Klaus regardless.**_

" _ **That was before Kol taught my daughter a spell full of optical illusions."**_

 _ **She studied the message that popped up before responding. "What did she make you see?"  
**_

 _ **There was a long pause, the three dots dancing as he typed. "Well I don't see how anyone could particularly enjoy waking up to a massive spider crawling across the bed spread."**_

 _ **A loud boisterous laugh erupted from her chest and the shoppers around her in the frozen food aisle stopped to stare at her. "Could have been worse."**_

" _ **I don't see how."**_

" _ **She could have made you think you were human."**_

It wasn't until their respective children were starting were well into their foray into adulthood that Caroline suggested they meet in person.

2040

" _ **I think we should meet."**_

" _ **Have we not?" Klaus asked with a smirk from the other side of their phone call. He could sense her nervousness with her fluttered responses the entire conversation.**_

" _ **I'm serious." He could hear the long-held sigh escape her, could envision her lip between her teeth in contemplation. It wasn't often, but they had had the back and forth banter about the scandal it would cause with her friends if they expanded their friendship past their current borders. Klaus found the whole thing ridiculous since they were decades into this.**_

" _ **And just what would Scooby and the gang think of that?"**_

" _ **Seriously?" she scoffed. "Fine. It was just a suggestion..."**_

" _ **I can have my plane ready within an hour." His abrupt but serious interruption had Caroline's sputtering.**_

" _ **Not here!" rushing across her office, she closed the door and sank into the seat in front of her desk. "Not right now. Gosh, you're so impossible. I just meant, soon." She groaned but settled into her next confession softly. "I want to see you. Somewhere neutral."**_

Somewhere neutral had ended up being a heart of New York City. They planned for a week during the autumn that coincided with the school's fall break. She had visited a few times over the decades but it was new experiencing it with him. He had greeted her at the airport with a bouquet of sunflowers and she had embarrassingly launched herself into his arms, the flowers slipping from his hands as he gripped her. She looped her arm through his as they leisured through the MET, his face alight with passion as he regaled her with various stories of the paintings and artists. There was a quiet reverence he showed lacing his fingers through hers as they strolled through Central Park in a bustling array of crimson and ginger through the falling leaves.

Their fourth day there, after a dinner consisting of Thai food and very expensive wine that Caroline could not pronounce, she walked to his hotel room door instead of her own. He had quirked up an eyebrow, determined to keep it at her pace, but she had instead rolled her eyes and fisted the fabric of his shirt before rolling her tongue against his. He was embarrassed to admit that he had known exactly how long it had been since the last time and was pleased that once again it was her who took to first step.

Her kisses had been long and languid, a savoring of each other bodies as they mapped the various dips along their skin. He had the time to find the scar on the top of her knee, the sensitive spot at the hilt of her thigh that had her taking in a shudder breath, the warmth of her voice as his name fell from her lips. It had been a startling contrast to their time in the woods so may years prior-then had been all bruising and hard; an explosion of deep-rooted passions being released.

2058

"I can't believe we finally made it to Paris." She grinned as she turned her head to face him. There was nothing but a spattering of twinkling Parisian lights dancing across her cheeks as he tucked an errant stand of hair behind her ear. "It will be every better when we finally make it out of bed and into the city.

His fingers continued their dance down her spin as he smirked. "I suppose I still need to show you what the Eiffel Tower has to offer."

"Yes." She agreed with a solid nod. "But also there's the Louvre-"

"Overrated."

"Happening." She narrowed her eyes with a playful smile as she tugged at the cords around his neck. "I really love to hear you talk about the art as we walk around."

"Far be it from me to deny you." He kissed her then, a gentle tug on his bottom lip as he pulled away. "How long to I have you for this time?"

The trip to New York had been the first of many. They had spent their remaining days in a cocoon of bliss, a snow swirling around their floor to ceiling windows of their hotel room. Caroline had felt they were in a snow globe tangled in sheets unsure where each other limbs began and ended. He had been wonderful and accommodating and it was effortless to forget all the terrible things he had ever done when he was grinning against her lips and whispering in her ear.

Years passed before their next excursion. Still neutral, but Miami had offered dancing and sandy beaches. Chicago was next years later; then Seattle, Lake Tahoe, San Diego, even his compound in New Orleans. It was decades of week-long rendezvous before Caroline allowed international travel. Tokyo had been the first stop in their world tour. The Maldives had been beautiful and India had been transcendent. They gorged on vino and cheese throughout their week in the Tuscan countryside and skinny dipped in the Turks and Caicos.

Biting her lip, she ran her hand along his jaw and cupped his cheek. "Lizzie's son is having a baby." Her brow furrowed, Klaus knew that look of all too well. "Klaus, I think maybe we should take a little break. I'm technically a great grandmother and I have to just pretend I'm some long-lost cousin all the time. It's exhausting."

"All the more reason to stay with me, love." He ducked his head to look into her eyes. "Best looking great grandmother if I do say so myself."

"The girls are getting older." She sighed, her forehead resting against his. "Ric passing away was hard on them. Bonnie and Elena-"

"I know." He offered a half-hearted smile, but it seemed off with his hard line. He had already waited an eternity for her already, accepting the small doses she afforded him throughout the years. What was a few decades more?

X-x-X

2133

To date, this was the longest they had stayed apart.

Being a supernatural dynasty was tough business and Caroline had thought it best to focus on what remaining family she had left. They had an eternity she had said; a never-ending supply of forever. She would never admit to it, but Klaus had the sneaking suspicion she had met someone, or multiple someone's of the course of the years. He would never be able to deny anything that created joy for her and he patiently bid his time.

It was an unwritten rule that she wrote the rules; it would have to be her to come to him when the time was right. He wanted her safe however and had various hybrids and vampires alike keep tabs on her throughout the years. She had decidedly ended that when she had sent all four vampires back to him in a suffering of werewolves' bites and a cheeky pointed letter to back off.

His kingdom had come under attack and fallen multiple times over the decades only to be risen once again by him. It found it be taxing with very little reward or reaping of benefits. Supernatural and humans alike feel at his feet, hybrids were sired to him in unwavering loyalty and he had never felt more alone in his thousand years.

75 years was long enough and he had grown tired of waiting.

He convinced a witch to conjure a locator spell and within a few days he had arrived in a wild, vast open space of Tennessee. The house was small nestled in a valley of mountains, the colors of fall a vibrant cacophony of blistering reds and burnt oranges. A fire was burning in the hearth, it's smoke billowing across the sky as he made his way down a path and through a small fence into the large back yard.

As someone who typically had a contingency plan for plans B, C, and D he found himself at a lose for how to approach her. He hazard that she would be happy to see him, if not annoyed at first but that he could probably persuade her to come around. In the back corner of the lawn is where he found her; her back facing him as she dug in the vegetable garden around him. It was very much hers; a animated display of red and green and yellow peppers, carrots, and tomatoes. He could smell cilantro and basil, and the smallest hint of lavender.

A small breeze swirled around him and he was overwhelmed by the scent of her honey perfume wafting through. A present he had gifted her in Rome, it was nice to know she still wore it after all the time that had passed. She shuffled on her knees, running her hand along her forehead before bracing herself to stand up from kneeling.

As a vampire he wasn't required to breathe, and he logically knew that, but he still sucked in a deep breath as she stood erect in front of him. Three quarters of a century in waiting and he was finally going to see her one more. He had pictures and letters to placate him, but he ached for her smile and all of her light that she showered upon him.

She spun slowly, her apron tucked up in her fisted hand to hold up the vegetables in her makeshift hammock. Dusting her other hand off the side of her dress she took a few steps forward before glancing up. Seeing Klaus standing in front her had her gulping in a harsh intake of air, her hand letting go of the fabric as the vegetables dropped around her feet.

"Klaus."

"Hello, love."

Her face was still everything he had memorized and painted and sketched throughout the years and it was everything he was so focused on; her bright blue eyes, the lips he has spent so much time worshipping, the constellation of freckles he had explored, the soft lines of her cheeks. Closing the short distance, he cupped her jaw relishing in the feel of her skin next to his. Tugging her into his grasp, she coiled her arms around his neck and squeezed as her face nuzzled into his neck.

With that, three things were a realization in quick succession.

She was too warm.

He could decipher the distinct beating of two hearts against his chest.

Strong, beautiful, full of life Caroline was human and with child.


	2. Chapter 2

Pretty confident I can get a good 5 chapters out of this little ficlet. The characters are definitely talking to me and I think I have the backstory and mythology nailed down. No clue how I'm gonna end the whole thing, so I'm think I'm gonna wing it. My writers block still sucks and I'm sorry. Love me anyway.

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Chapter 2

 _2048_

" _What are you giggling about?"_

 _Klaus kissed Caroline's cheek as he sank into the beach chair next to her. The Mediterranean Sea stretched out before them in a brilliant blue and green on the crystalline white beaches of Greece. They had explored the ruins of Athens in the morning, napped and made love on their boat anchored in the harbor, and now were relaxing with their feet in the water and the sun high._

" _Bonnie." She scoffed playfully showing Klaus her phone. "She and Enzo are in Taiwan. Enzo is panicked over his first gray hair."_

" _You ever consider it?"_

" _What's that?"_

" _Taking the cure." He supplied, his fingers running through the strands of her hair. "Before, you didn't have a choice and now you do."_

 _She bit her lip briefly. "If I were going to take the cure, I would have already taken it when everyone was still young enough that I could age with them. If I take it now, most everyone will be gone."_

 _He bent down, brushing his lips across hers, pleased with her answer. "I'm not going anywhere; even if you are still a baby vampire."_

x-X-x

2133

Somehow, he had managed to quell every inch of rage simmering just beneath the surface. He had stumbled away from her as if he had been burned and he had heard the audible gulp slide down her throat once there was distance placed between them. He had cared for this woman for decades, and the hatred and betrayal that was filling every inch of his body was overwhelming; a different kind of desiccation that had him thrumming in every cell and fiber.

Her rapid heartbeat strummed in his ears, the blue of her eyes vibrant in his vision as she winced back the sheen of tears pooling within them. Tearing her look away from him, she took stock of the vegetables arranged around her feet, a new look of determination masking her features. Carefully she placed her hand under the bulging belly and grabbed a few of the vegetables, stalking past Klaus, bumping into his shoulder as she did so.

He watched her, dumbfounded as she stomped her way up onto her back porch and into her house, the back-screen door slamming with a bang. He couldn't think of a single thing in all his thousand plus years that he had been more caught off guard. He had made the vow to stay away and allow her to live a life of her choosing but he never even considered the possibility of her taking the cure. Hadn't she always loved being a vampire?

"Where the bloody hell do you get off?" he spoke through the screen door, the timbre in his voice shaking the house around them. Caroline didn't even acknowledge his presence at the kitchen island as she continued to chop up the tomatoes in front of her. Klaus's palm connected with the frame and the door flew clear of it's hinges when he pulled it open. "Invite me in." the words were spat through clenched teeth as Caroline continued her vigorous mincing, her jaw set. "Caroline!"

Slamming down the knife, she placed both palms flat on the countertop, her head low. "Come in."

"How bloody could you?"

"You have no idea what you're talking Klaus." She hissed, the tip of the knife slicing through the pad of her finger. She let a small gasp escape her lips at the pain, the blade clanking against the butcher block top. Klaus swallowed hard, the scent of her blood hitting his nostrils in a painful swell. He made the motion to go towards her but she held up her hand and threw him a stern look that stopped him in his tracks. "I got it. I'm fine."

He rocked on the balls of his feet and took a step back as she scooped up her apron and affixed it around her bloody finger. "You owe me an explanation."

"I'm aware this may come as a shock to you," giving one last glance over the cut on her finger, she began her chopping once more. "But contrary to popular belief, you are in fact not entitled to every thing you want like some spoiled brat. I swear you could give my five-year-old a run for her money with your petulance."

"Pardon me, your what year old?" he sputtered uncharacteristically. Before he could stop himself, his hand was gripping a chair and smashing it against the old and knotted wood floor.

A stuttered 'oh' fell from Caroline's lips and she took a step back as the wood splintered in her direction. Taking in stock of the destruction before her, a determined look swept across her features and she snatched up the knife left discarded on the butcher block and stomped towards Klaus, the tip of the blade a beacon honing in on him.

"Seriously?" she shouted, stepping easily over the deconstructed chair despite her bulging belly. Klaus remained affixed as still as a statue, the only movement the violent rise and fall of the heaves of his chest as he worked through the anger coursing through him.

Thinking through all the information he had gathered thus far, he had no choice but to assume that Caroline was married. The kinked and worn ring on her left hand was a major clue, however the new knowledge of another child all but sealed the deal. Categorically, he couldn't put it into any kind of order that made him angrier over the other; the cure, children, marriage, lies, betrayal, ache…

He held his palms up in surrender just as she reached him. The knife they both knew would do little but cause annoyance, but his approach thus far had been gaining him very little. "You come into my home, demanding answers when I owe you exactly none, and then start these predictable and disappointing ravings like the big bad wolf you want everyone to think you are and you're curious as to why I stayed away for so long?!"

"I-"

"No." she shunted his efforts of explanation or apology, she wasn't sure, his mouth hanging open. The look would have been comical, considering the source, had she had been seeping in such hatred and unnecessary stress. "There are mountains right in my back yard if you want to tear something apart. Feel free to rip through the forest, but so help me Klaus, if you don't get over whatever this tantrum is right now, I will burn the earth looking for the last splinter of White Oak and shove it in your aorta!"

"Your threats of a good time could use some polishing," he conceded after a moment, his body sliding easily into a chair he had not destroyed. "Unless of course you're saving that for your husband."

The flash of pain did not go unnoticed by Klaus, even though she quickly recovered. "I have to go pick up my daughter from school." Taking in a breath, she too took a seat in a chair next to her breakfast table, her hand snuggly under the belly for support. It was both familiar and foreign as Klaus automatically lent a hand to the small of her back to ease her journey. A small smile was offered in gratitude, even if it was skewed slightly as a grimace. Her voice was warm honey, a memory of soft words murmured in his ears as she spoke next. "I do; owe you an explanation. You aren't owed any of my decisions, but I can explain everything."

Now that he had sufficient time to reel in some of the shock of the position he was in, he was able to appreciate the features that had changed in the near century since he had seen her last. The unfortunate part of the cure was that aging once again resumed, and she no longer was encased as a teenager for eternity. Besides the obvious bump in her abdomen, there was new curves to her hips, laugh lines at the corner of her eyes, a scar on her forearm that wasn't there before. She was still so much _Caroline_ , however. The same soft blonde curls cupped her shoulders, her blue eyes shone just a bright and the same crinkle in her brow indented in the middle.

"This was a mistake." He cleared his throat once; an invisible human reflex that was that wholly unfamiliar to him after a thousand years of being immortal. Caroline, it seemed, even after all this time still brought out the most in his humanity, right down to the ticks. "I vowed to never disrupt your life or intrude…"

"It's ok." She clasped his hand, the shock of heat from her pulsing blood causing him to flinch infinitesimally. Glancing up at the clock, her palm gave way to a gentle squeeze of his fingers. "I really do need to pick up my daughter from school. I don't want to have to explain you to the gossipy moms in the carpool line, so do you think you can behave for half an hour?"

The roll of his eyes and small scoff that accompanied it brought a grin to her face at last.

"It's nice that things haven't changed after all this time." She wiggled herself out of the chair, slipping off the apron and hanging it on the hook. Grabbing her purse and keys off the table she turned back to him. "Be here when I get back." It was a plea, and it sounded desperate to her ears even though the demand came through brilliantly. "And fix the door, please."

X-x-X

 _2053_

" _Would you say yes?"_

 _The kink in her head elicited a handsome smirk. Lounging lazily in the oversized chair, the fire roaring next to him, he was up to something. Decades in these dalliances with him and she could always tell he was up to his devious ways. Granted so far, she still had yet to determine most of the time if he was intent of wiping out an entire sub species or coming up with new and creative ways to get her naked and in bed._

" _What would I be saying yes to?" she smiled, her grip around the mug in her hand tightening as she took a sup of the cocoa. It was flavored slightly with a hint a whiskey and peppermint, the perfect compliment to the falling snow and twinkling lights outside. Christmas in Aspen had been the exact recipe for everything she desired with Klaus._

" _Don't be daft, love." Draping his leg over the arm of the chair, he nodded his head in her direction. "I saw your reaction to the ceremony we came across earlier in the day."_

 _Sinking into the large chair across from him she eyed him curiously but didn't allow her expression to give anything away. "Would I be saying yes to you or some arbitrary man in the future?" His eyes were narrowed but his countenance was still full of amusement._

" _Humor me."_

" _We're vampires, Klaus." She deadpanned with a casual roll of her eyes. He adored that annoyance he brought out. "We have an insurmountable of time stretching in front of us."_

" _And you've already been married." He pointed out. She winced; she still thought often enough of Stefan and having the reminder of his death on their wedding day was still harsh. Klaus, at least had the grace to look chagrined._

" _You would never." She challenged, even as the pit in her stomach grew at the softness in his features as he looked at her. Decades long past, she still had the tiniest twinges of terror remembering the first few years with him in her life. There was such defiance and pain burrowed deep in him, a raging wolf always eager to surface. His sweet two dimpled smile was always her undoing._

" _Is that a dare?"_

" _It's a promise." She pulled the candy cane out of her mug and dipped into her mouth, pulling it out with an audible 'pop'. Setting her cup on the table in front of her, she sauntered over to his chair, her eyebrows quirking up as she motioned for him to make space for her. It was a familiar descent into his lap and his waiting arms as they circled around in a well-worn path around her waist. There was a warm caress along her neck and a gentle tug at her curls as he pulled her lips closer to his._

" _yes…"_

X-x-X

Pulling into her driveway and shutting off the engine, Caroline glanced back at her daughter. The precocious 5-year-old was preoccupied with the book in her hand, unaware of everything that was shifting around their family unit. She couldn't even be certain that Klaus was still in her kitchen, and it bothered her to no end that she didn't know if that was what she wanted or not.

The small indents in her wedding band glistened in the afternoon sun as she twisted it around her finger. She couldn't bring herself to take it off as the idea had been horrifying and heart wrenching in equal measure. The act just seemed so final; much more than placing his coffin in the ground, or identifying his body, or explaining to her child that her father was never coming home.

"Gracie." She commanded the little girl's attention immediately. "Mommy has a friend here and he's very important. So, I want you to go upstairs and do your homework. Then we're gonna have dinner with him."

There was a mumbled reply from the child and she dove right back into book. There was a small part of her that was wanting a tantrum just so that she would have an excuse to not go in there and face him. As she gathered her and Gracie's things out of the car, she thought over the lifetimes she had share with Klaus so far. It had been naïve to think that he would ever had simply just let them go when they had shared so much.

"You fixed the door."

His shirt was off and his taut muscles stretched across his shoulder blades. She held Gracie's hand as they meandered up the path, his arm swinging a hammer to rehang the door he had pulled off the hinges earlier. Next to him on the desk, the piece of the chair that he had destroyed previously laid stacked up neatly in a pile.

"I was imparted with direct orders."

It had taken him a lot longer than he would have liked to decide to stay. He was normally so very decisive and impulsive; the fact that he had remained a rooted fixture for more than 10 minutes after Caroline had left him in her kitchen bothered him endlessly. As much as every fiber was tearing at him to run, to turn even, he couldn't bear the thought of never _knowing._

Taking in the small child clutching Caroline's hand, he searched every stitch to find some resemblance that wasn't Caroline. But everything from the girls long blonde curls, to the bright blue eyes and every present forehead furrow was so much Caroline, that he found both relief in it and a burning ache of what never would be.

"Gracie," Caroline looked down, the little girl's steely burning into Klaus's presence. "This is my friend, Klaus."

"When my daughter was very small, I made her a trinket." Klaus maneuvered down the steps to the pathway, fishing out the trinket he had craved out quickly while they had been away. He outstretched the bauble to Gracie and waited anxiously as she hesitated before taking it.

"A dog?"

Klaus smiled as Gracie turned it around in her hand, examining the features. "A wolf, actually. They're strong and powerful. The truth is, wolf pups especially are so brave and fierce. I can astutely assure you they can do anything."

"They can?" Gracie tone of wonderment had Caroline reaching for her throat as she swallowed thickly. It was scene so foreign; Klaus with her daughter in an interaction so pure but a shadow of a memory she had seen played out so many times with her husband. "My daddy used to tell me stories about wolves."

"Oh?"

"Ok, bug. Run upstairs and do your homework. I'll call you down for dinner in just a little while." Caroline ushered Gracie up the stairs to the back deck past Klaus, careful of the back door still not quite on the hinges.

She didn't wait for Klaus to come back into the kitchen, nor was she surprised when she spun to see him already casually sitting at the breakfast table. Checking on the stew she had left in the crock pot prior to leaving, she placed a kettle on the stove, the gas hissing and popping until the blue flame danced underneath the ceramic.

Leaning against the kitchen island she grew more distressing with each passing second of silence. Time took on a different meaning when she had been a vampire. As a human now, it felt weighted and limited; much more finite. There had been a time that the mystery of what was ticking in his mind at any given moment was a fun guessing game. The shrill of the kettle shook her from her reverie and she poured them each tea in two mismatched tea cups.

"You remember how I like my tea." He commented as she stirred, clinking the spoon a few times on the rim of the cup.

She scoffed, latching onto his hand and turning it palm up. Fingering the scar along his wrist she sighed. "You were 12 or 13; Kol and you were sparring in the woods and you fell. A branched pierced your skin and a rock got embedded. You tried to keep it from your parents so you had Rebekah stitch you up."

"Indeed." He nodded, his hand flipping over so fast and grabbing hers that the gasped. His thumb ghosted over the veins under her skin. "She did a rather piss job of it, but I didn't die. Not then anyway."

"I remember more than you give my pitiful human mind credit for." She sucked in her breath with a raggedness that felt strange to her. Even in the depths of terror and hatred for this man in front of her, she was never so uncomfortable. "Why do you still look at me like that?"

The words tumbled out of her mouth like she was sixteen and bumbling all over again. "How do I look at you?"

"I'm human." She whispered; and even though they both knew it, the admission out loud made it so much more complete. Her hand was still in his and for the only time that she could ever remember, there was a drastic temperature difference that she found she wasn't opposed to. His expression begged for more explanation and she fought back the tears threatening to betray her. "Weak. Fragile. Disposable. Why do you still look at me like-"

His palm was sweeping her jaw and into her cheek before she could finish. "Caroline, love." His thumb caressed her skin as the tears glistened in her eyes. An odd battle raged inside of him; he yearned to give into the anger and pain and destruction but it was quelled so much by the desire to make her happy, to ensure her safety and well-being that it was easy to ignore every ounce of information he had learned in the last few hours. "On the contrary, you are anything but, sweetheart."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

To Klaus, the backwoods of Tennessee didn't seem so different then the woods surrounding the Mystic Falls of his youth. There were mountains here of course, but the trees were thick, the sky open to a spattering of bright and dimming stars, and the rustling of both wind and prey swept through the forest. He could understand why Caroline had chosen to live here; he was sure it was reminiscent her much the same of the life she had led so long ago.

The tense afternoon had transitioned quite unremarkably into a simple evening of stew and small anecdotes from Gracie. Klaus had even found himself entertained by her stories; a harsh reminder of the years he had missed out on with Hope in her own youth. The entirety of the day had taken a toll on him, and he felt that this was the most he had felt time in perhaps hundreds of years. He was desperate for answers, anxious to not overwhelm her, and still teetering on the edge of both a gripping anger and excruciating ache.

"She's down for the night." Caroline announced coming out of the kitchen, the now in tact and totally hinged door banging behind her. There was a moment of hesitation, but she finally sighed and sank into the steps of her back deck next to Klaus. Idly, he wondered if he too were human would he still be able to feel the small current of her body next to his. He could hear the small 'pop' of her mouth as it opened and closed a few times as she gathered whatever words failed her.

"You're much more articulate when you're angry." He snickered playfully. The sneer he anticipated, the slight punch to the shoulder he had not. Caroline was the one rarity that had both the courage and the gumption to assume she could touch him however she pleased, even now. "Perhaps, a dictionary would prove useful?"

"I know the words." She rolled her eyes, her hand running the length of her hair before tossing it over her shoulder. Taking the small wolf trinket out of his hands she ran her fingers over the intricate details he had whittled into the wood. "Do you ever turn?"

"Often." He admitted easily. "I find it quite liberating; the ability to turn to nothing but instinct and sense. My wolf is so innately me yet so far removed from what I feel I am to my core that it's a strange tandem to keep in balance."

"Being human again is like that for me." She mused ruefully. It was a topic she would have to tread lightly, but she couldn't leave the decision without an explanation. "I never really forgot how to be human…my humanity was such a large part of who I was, even as a vampire. Being a vampire felt so right though that I never could really reconcile the two."

"Your humanity was the most special part about you."

Scoffing, she laughed heartily despite herself. "You hated my humanity."

"Well yes, much to my chagrin most of the time. It was a yet another pesky obstacle in my way but Caroline-" he too was laughing as he paused and tucked an errant stand of hair behind her ear, his hand lingering too long, too familiar against her skin. She found her eyes fluttering at the touch, leaning into it as he cleared his throat and removed his hand. "You were a kind and compassionate human and you never lost that once you became a vampire. Annoying to me, yes, but still admirable all the same."

"I, uh," she scooped his palm into her own. "I'm going to go take a bath. It seems to calm the baby. Will you be here when I'm done? Please?"

She didn't even try to hide the desperation in her voice.

"Of course."

X-x-X

The house he wondered through now was so innately Caroline yet so remarkably foreign to him that he had to suppress every natural instinct in him to stay rooted. She had always loved to nest; the longest jaunt they had ever spent together, a summer in Maine she had done much the same. She had laid out pictures of the girls, her prom photos, and other small mementos from home. They had spent their days fishing and making love, and their evenings cooking together before retiring to watching her knit as he painted in the corner, the only sound of the cracking fire and the raging ocean below filling up the space.

Now, the house creaked with water running through old pipes and the vague waves of music coming from Gracie's bedroom. He noticed several trinkets from their travels; a vase from Greece, a rug from India and felt an odd swell fill up his chest as the prospect that even after all this time, even after humanity prevailed there was still a spot nestled in there for him. Photos lined the mantle above the fireplace, and one prominently front and center was Caroline; drenched with sweat, a smile of pure bliss holding an infant, a man's arm around her shoulders with a smile that mirrored hers.

He had to remind himself that as selfish had he had always been, he never begrudged her any happiness. Tyler came to mind first, and while he had dug his heels in for quite the stretch he had ultimately relented in the spirit of her happiness. Secretly for years he had told himself that the grin she gave him on the night of her gradation had been his declaration of last loves and not his permission for some high school love to be returned to her.

Stefan, he had respected as a brother for a time before her, and while he didn't quite regard him the same in his final years or his never-ending need to put Damon above all, he knew that was a deep seeded love within Caroline. It wasn't his favorite thought or his favorite thing to be in competition with a ghost, but he recognized the importance all the same.

This man, encompassed now in only the frame in his hands, however had given her life.

"Damn it."

His head turned towards the stairs as he heard Caroline's whispered curse. Setting down the frame gently, he made his way up towards the bathroom. Lingering much longer than he would have liked, he finally pushed against the door gingerly as another soft swear word dropped from her lips.

"Need a hand, love?"

Caroline glared at Klaus in her doorway but didn't refuse him, pointedly handing over the razor in her hand. Eight months pregnant had not agreed with her when she had twins the first time, was not her friend when she had Grace a few years prior, and was now being a predictable pain in her ass. Was it so much to ask that her expanding belly not get in the way of the removal of the hair on her legs?

Tugging the towel around her breasts more snuggly, she propped her foot on the stool next to the tub she sat on. He sank down on his knees in front of her, his eyes skimming over the length of her body with no shame. With precision, he started at her ankle, the strokes deft as he rested a calculating hand on the underside of her knee. She would be lying if she didn't feel the heat radiating off as their skin connected with one another so intimately for the first time in decades. Her fingers gripped the edge of the tub, and had she still been a vampire would had surely dusted under her grasp.

"Can I ask you something?"

"What's that?"

"Don't you miss being a vampire?" he murmured, wincing as he nicked her knee with one of his strokes.

"I miss the instant healing." Without a thought, he had thumbed the red liquid and popped it into his mouth the yellow in his eyes briefly flashing through as he savored. It was very much Caroline but flavored differently somehow as human blood. She took in a shuttered breath as he took another lick against her bare knee, suckling until the bleeding had stopped. Her fingers itched to sink into the curls on the top of his head, but instead she forced herself to focus. "Compulsion, on occasion."

"I'm certain waiting in long lines isn't as fun as it seems when you can't compel your way to the front." He smirked up at her as he ran a wash cloth over her leg and picked up the other one. "It is rather handy when you want to get your way, however."

"You get your way regardless." She countered with a playful snark. "Actually, what I miss most is vamp hearing. The twins, when they were inside me, I could hear them constantly. When they were little I would listen out for their steady thumps and it would comfort me. It's funny," she covered her mouth with the back of her hand as she suppressed a giggle. "with Grace, I went out and bought a stethoscope. I'm not crazy, I promise. I just liked knowing that she was alive; that she was something I _made_."

A small gasp escaped her lips as Klaus suddenly had his ear pressed against her chest. His arms wound around her waist, his palms against the small of her back. The stubble along his jaw tickled her skin and with a gulp she tried to suppress the host of memories that rushed through. Her hands came up without permission held in a frozen surrender she wasn't sure she didn't want to succumb to. After a moment, she couldn't stop them from finding his curls, and the base of his neck. A happy hum escaped his lips as her skin prickled with the contact and her heart sped up.

"Reminds me of my hummingbird." He murmured, his lips brushing across the top of her breasts. He pulled back to look up at her, the whiskers of his jaw still close to tickle her skin. The familiarity of it all, the urge to be near her, the desire to touch every inch of her was the single most overwhelming feeling he had ever encountered. A wave of understanding and a silent agreement passed through them, as she bit her bottom lip, her fingers tugging through his hair and bringing his forehead to her lips.

X-x-X

"Do you remember our last trip to Paris?"

Her query shook him, and he turned to face her much more quickly than he would have liked. They had made it out once more onto the back deck, she wrapped in a blanket in her pajamas at the foot of the stairs, him meandering into the vast expanse of the back yard. It was difficult for him to try and prove he was aloof and confident in her presence. Time had waged a war against him it seemed; he had expected centuries with her, awaiting an unspoken vow of forever only now it was reduced to decades, or perhaps even this one day.

"I recall everything." His voice once again betrayed him, a thickness that he cleared from his throat as he continued. "We never did make it to the Louvre."

She clasped her hands in front of her, the white of her knuckles showing in the light emitting from the kitchen. Those last few days with him had invaded her thoughts more than she would have liked. Some of the details had slipped away in the years inside a human mind, but she could remember their last night so vividly that sometimes she even wondered if she made the whole thing up.

"I need you to understand that this choice," she sucked in her breath, releasing the air deep through her nose. "This choice to take the cure, it wasn't made lightly or without regards to…"

"In regards to what?"

"To you." She whispered her face turning towards his abruptly. A wince graced her delicate features as she pushed herself and her swollen belly off of the steps. "There wasn't a breath I took that I didn't consider what I was giving up with you to take that cure."

"Then why take it at all?" the words cut sharply into the cool night, his focus on his rage instead of the pain from her confession. "At the very least I think I deserved a proper goodbye."

He couldn't bring himself to ask her what he really wanted to know; how she could walk away from him. Every deep seeded self-doubt and insecurity that had been rooted in him for over a thousand years threatened to implode inside his chest cavity if he succumbed to the thought. Kids and family and normalcy he could easily rationalize but he simply couldn't bear to believe that a life totally without him was what she had wanted.

Her hand swiped at her cheek as she paced in front of him, the other hand firmly roaming around the curve of her stomach. "Paris-"

"So, you keep saying." There was an undercurrent of a bite in his tone and even though she narrowed her eyes, she allowed it. "I assure you; I have thought of little else since my arrival."

Stopping dead in her tracks she turned to face him. "This wasn't your fault. You were a huge consideration; I promise but this wasn't anything you did _wrong_."

"Enlighten me." He challenged; his arms spread wide in front of him in mockery. He sighed after a beat, the utter defeat on her face once again shearing him at his seams. "You don't have to tell me, Caroline. I can bid you farewell and you never have to think of me again. I can even compel you..."

"Don't you dare." She gritted out, her hands forming into balls beside her hips. "Time will do it's job of taking that away from me just fine without your interference. I'm not upset that you're here, Klaus. I have missed you."

Logic had always dictated that what she felt for Klaus was never going to be anything short of impossible. Wars had been waged against him, she had been used countless times in a ploy to distract him, her own life had been in the balance through direct fault of his. Long before their first dalliance in the woods, and much more in the years and decades since she had always felt somehow less in those in between times. The thrum of the marching of time was ever present, and she had found herself on more than one occasion indulging in a life thought out with regards and revolving around a very defined 'us'.

"You took me walking along the river." She started, the memory wrapping itself around her in an embrace. She could almost still feel the chill of the Parisian air nipping at the skirt of her dress, the heals of her shoes clicking against the stone paths, the happiness in his laughter as they stumbled along the bank of the Seine. "You wrapped the cashmere scarf around me as if I needed the warmth, and kissed my forehead as if I needed anything but that. I clung to the ghost of your lips for years."

His lips parted in awe as she continued.

"When we rented that beach house in Maine, I think maybe the third time we met up you took me fishing." she giggled at the memory, the back of her hand covering her mouth. "And you hooked that hammerhead, fought him all the way into the boat. You slipped and fell, the shark chomping around beside you. Do you even realize how little you actually, genuinely smile? Or laugh for that matter?"

"I was going to be bested by a bloody shark." Klaus shook his head, an illicit grin forming. "Kol would have never let me live that down."

"I think I knew even then that there would come a point, and I didn't know when, but there would be an eventual next step. It would have been something final and conclusive but the beginning of something new. A life that didn't have grudges and doppelgangers, stupid spells or curses."

She studied her stomach then, a small nudge hitting near her bladder; the life inside her reminding her of a life she would never have. She trekked the small distance back to the deck and took her place beside him once more, her knee grazing his. It was a risk, but she took his hands into hers, placing the interlocking pieces on top her lap.

"In Paris, you got called away. An emergency in the Quarter." She nestled further into his side as he released on of her hands and snaked his arm across her shoulders. "It was the next day when I was shopping that I was approached by a woman in the alleyway. She was this beautiful mischievous red head and I knew she was a vampire. The arrogant part of me knew that because I was with you, in whatever way that was, that I wouldn't be harmed. You have made a lot of enemies and I have no doubt that they would use would me to their advantage, but the thought didn't even cross my mind."

"Before you left you took off my gloves and pulled my fists up to your lips, and I'll never forget the dimples of your smile as you blew warm breath into them. Or the fondness as you kissed me for the last time." She sniffled in the crook of his arm but continued on the same. "She taunted me with that memory; she had been following us for quite some time, I think. There was no vervain or wooden stakes, just a warning that if I cared for you, I shouldn't contact you anymore."

The grip on her hand tightened and she could feel his jaw clench at the crown of her head.

"Who was this vampire?" the quaver in his voice betrayed him. He would make an example of this vampire, leave her rotting away in his compound to be pecked away as the infection from one of his lethal bites ravished her away. He would cure her and repeat as many times as necessary until she went mad.

2058

" _Your necklace is so lovely."_

 _Caroline spun at the voice behind her, her hand automatically reaching for the pendant necklace Klaus had gifted her just the day before. It was a woman and a man who stood before her, only she didn't think they were a couple. The body language was all wrong and there was something menacing in the features of the man even when the woman was at complete ease; almost delighted._

" _Thank you." Caroline nodded politely as she clocked their ring fingers from the short distance. There on each hand, not a set of wedding bands but daylight rings. She had run across a number of vampires in her time and they seemed to be more frequent in Europe. Even still, she had to be cautious and weary considering the company she kept._

" _Niklaus always did have excellent taste." The woman smiled, her green eyes twinkling taking a bold step closer and winding her fingers around the pendant on Caroline's neck. She noticed the bob of Caroline's throat as she swallowed hard and ran her finger down the column. "Even though Niklaus did leave us in a bit of a spat, I mean you no harm, dove. Tell me, do you too see the good in him? That frail little human did." She cackled and spun away, dancing around the man who stood tall and stoic. "I can see now he has a type."_

" _Who are you?" Caroline asked, a fortress unmoved. Internally she was a network of terror coursing through her, but she had learned long ago that being the victim got her nowhere. "I haven't seen Klaus in ages."_

" _Lie." The woman hissed, a smile still gracing her features, her eyes dark. "You're quite enamored with him. I was privy to witness that adoring way he warmed your hands and kissed you so sweetly. Tell me, do you think he feels for you the same way? He once told me that there was a light in me so bright that it made him feel like the man he wished he were."_

 _It was slight, but Caroline couldn't stop the wince at the woman's words._

" _Oh, dear." The woman frowned dramatically inching her way back towards Caroline. "Have a stuck a chord? My darling, we are all but an endless array of playthings for him. Something new and shiny to come along every so often and capture his attention. You're but a baby vampire still; someone who clings to her humanity. He enjoys the thrill of how far he can push that boundary within you."_

 _Her mind whirling with sudden self-doubt in all her thoughts and feelings regarding Klaus, she couldn't react fast enough when the woman blew a scattering of what felt like dust and sand in Caroline's face. The man behind her began chanting in a foreign tongue unfamiliar. Her senses dulled, she grew dizzy and disoriented as the woman caught her easily in her arms just as Caroline begun her descent to the ground._

" _There, dove." The woman brushed the hair from Caroline's face as she rested her head against the wet rocks of the pavement. "This spell will most certainly do you no harm, I give you my word. It would bode_ _you well love, to stay away from Niklaus. I can't guarantee the same certainty for him."_

X-x-X

"Aurora."

Klaus gritted the name out, the familiar tremor of his wolf rising on its haunches within in.

"She's dead now." Caroline informed him pragmatically. "It took me years to sort out who she was and what spell she had cast on me. Even longer still to hunt her down and put an end to her."

He had been a foolish prat to not have checked in on her over the decades. There was a hitch in her breath, a thought lingering on her lips she didn't want to say.

"But not the spell." He deduced after a moment. The lump that lingered in his throat slid down painfully as he forced out the next words. "What spell did she have placed on you?"

"I'm still not sure, honestly." Her hand wrapped around the curve of her belly and for a fraction of a second, Klaus nearly reached out to trail behind it. "I especially didn't understand it then, but I felt somehow you wouldn't be safe."

"Sweetheart, I'm invincible." He snorted softly beside her with an undercurrent of indignation. "And regardless, you could have come to me with this. I could have fixed it."

Aurora was not someone he had given but a handful of thoughts over the years. She has skipped out of the Quarter and his life after he had sunk her brother deep in the Atlantic. He felt foolish now, leaving someone so deranged to their own devices. It was a major miscarriage of justice that she was no longer alive; he would have greatly enjoyed seeing her suffer.

"Not this." She murmured softly as the wrung her hands in her lap. Pulling away, leaving him aching she let out a small breath. "I didn't know then the extent of what she had in mind. I just remember thinking that it felt big. That's hard to explain, even now given everything I know. I don't even know if you're safe now."

"What happened? Wasn't there a Bennett witch somewhere convenient to reverse whatever nonsense Aurora was up to?"

She pulled away from him then, the space between them filling up an ocean of time.

"Paul came first." A small breath came tumbling out as her clouded human brain tried to recall the details. "He had a crooked nose from an old football injury and he was an accountant; but not in a boring or stuffy way. He made me laugh." She sighed wistfully. "I couldn't make his coffee the way he liked it but he still drank it every morning just the same. It was a car accident; it was over in an instant."

She continued on before Klaus could gather his thoughts.

"Luca was a few years later. I grieved for Paul, but someone once told me that my perception of time was going to have to change being a vampire." Pointedly she looked him, a ghost of a memory edging at the corners of her mind. "He made pancakes with blueberries and mumbled Beatles lyrics in his sleep. He planted a row of rose bushes in the front of our house. I had spaced and forget to get the wine and asked him to stop at the local store. They didn't have to shoot him, but he was gone the next day.

"It wasn't until Ryan died that I noticed the dove." She continued, the story spilling out of her with a force she didn't know she had. "It was there, on the front railing, the back fence, on the electrical pole every day leading up to it. We had a fantastic wrap around porch that I would sit out on every day and read. It was there on the porch swing we made together I sat when the police came up to give me the news; he had gone into a building on fire, and had never came out. It wasn't until Taylor that I figured out was what going on. The dove had returned and within days he was gone, too."

Her hand reached to the underside of her belly to rub the small area the baby was kicking. The download of information had left Klaus stunned, a barrage of emotions pounding against him. He was never foolish enough to think she had been alone this entire time, but knowing there had been many and that she had suffered such a loss that all feel at his feet to blame was overwhelming.

"I made it my mission to find Aurora, reverse whatever she had done. It had been so long at that point since I had seen you but I knew you were safe." She took to the step beside him once more preparing to tell him the most important part. The woods in front of them creaked and moaned with the wind, a haunting echo of coyote howled, and crickets chirped their chorus as she gathered his hands in her own.

"I met Danny, my husband, at a work conference. Yes, he was wolf and yes, I immediately sensed him and got on the defensive. I had actually thought he was sent by you. But as I got to know him, I realized he had no idea he was a wolf. He was kind, to his core. I resisted him until we found Aurora and properly handled her. I think I knew even then; I would never put you in harm's way."

She cleared her throat and continued, grateful for Klaus allowing no interruptions. "Danny and I, we stayed together for years. It reached a point where there was no dove and time was rooted in place for me. I…" she paused, the grief that was till fresh bowling her over in a way she wasn't expecting with Klaus in her reach. "…we wanted to build a life, make a life and I couldn't do that frozen in time. I took the cure and didn't look back.

Life moved on. We got married, I got pregnant with Gracie, and we started our lives. It felt important and big; like the world was finally opening up to me. I had just found out I was pregnant when the dove came back. I tried for days to kill it. Nothing worked. I had thought this was _over_. I begged Danny to stay with me, I had to protect him somehow, and it was worse now; I was a measly human. Four months ago, I woke up early for a doctor's appointment, and he- just didn't. A brain aneurism; totally unpredictable. No way to tell it was coming on."

"Caroline- "in his centuries of fighting witches and spells and enemies abound, the thought that something so profound would befall her, in all her goodness, left him with a putrid and vile self-loathing. It was something that had always festered at the edges in regards to her, but having the knowledge of her grief that was directly connected to him had him reeling. "I so very sorry."

Instinct overwhelmed him and he abruptly removed his hands from her and stood to retreat away from the stairs towards the open back yard. She gazed at him both unaffected or unsurprised, a deep seeded understanding and resignation dancing across her features in the hazy moonlight.

"It's okay." She nodded once as she whispered the next few words. "You can go."

Her empty backyard didn't hold a trace of him a moment later.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Spring bloomed in full force outside of Caroline's window, the sun shifting its rays through her sheer bedroom curtains. The breeze sneaking in the from the underside of the cracked window was unseasonably cool as she tightened the hand me down quilt around her shoulders. She could hear the baby cooing happily through the baby monitor but knew it would only be a matter of time before he began his morning wailing.

It had been nearly nine months since Klaus had thieved away in the blackness of night, under the cover of the forest behind her. The wolf trinket he had gifted to Gracie had tumbled through her fingers often since that night and she wondered far too frequently what he was up to. She had thought that part of her life had been far left behind when she had taken the cure so long ago.

Her sweet boy, Liam had made his debut two weeks early on a late Wednesday evening with very little fanfare. In stark contrast to Gracie's birth, he had easily slipped into the waiting arms of the doctor and once nestled into her arms, she immediately felt like a part of her husband had come back to her in the biggest of ways.

Grief for her husband shifted to the back burner to being a mother to an infant once more. Life's routine changed drastically; going from a single parent of one semi self-managed kid to that with a baby had Caroline's hands full. Liam was a relatively easy baby; he happily cooed throughout the day and slept most nights, with very little fussing in between. So much of Danny's sunny and calm disposition was reflected in him that Caroline found herself aching for him a way she wasn't accustomed to.

Throwing off her comforter, Caroline wrapped herself in her husband's robe and padded into the baby's room. Liam happily cooed, his feet kicking to the air as he sucked on his nubby fingers. With the dim edge of her human mind, she could remember the twins being this little, how being a vampire benefited her when she had two screaming infants. Scooping the baby up into her arm, he nestled further into her chest as she made her way to the kitchen to get started with breakfast.

Gracie was at camp and despite having the baby, Caroline was grateful for a small reprieve. Her daughter had taken her sweet time warming up to her new brother, throwing tantrums that rivaled some of the worst she had seen fighting off the supernatural. Grief shaped itself into mysterious patterns and she knew ultimately, she just had to give Gracie the space and wide berth to find her own way through it.

A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts, and she placed the baby into the high chair set up near the kitchen. Despite her quiet human life, she didn't have many friends in the small town she resided in and it wasn't often she had company drop by unexpectedly. Pulling open the front door, her brow kinked in confusion at the person awaiting through the screen door.

"Leah?"

It had been a few weeks since Caroline had seen Bonnie's only daughter. She lived only a state away, and tried to visit as often as possible, especially with the new baby in their lives. At least once a month, she would take the kids off of Caroline's hands for a small reprieve. This visit was unexpected, and after a beat, she unlatched the door and pushed it open for her to come inside.

"Hello, Caroline."

"What are you doing here?" Caroline asked, before shaking her head of the bewilderment clouding her mind. "I mean, come in and have a seat. Can I get you some coffee or tea?"

"I don't come with good news, Care." Leah started without preamble taking a graceful seat on the couch. She swept her long graying hair behind her shoulder and took a labored sigh. Caroline mirrored her movements and sank into the chair next to her. "I wanted to make sure that my information was correct. I've received word from some of my friends in Louisiana."

"Oh?"

Caroline wound her hand around her collarbone as an audible gulp slid down her throat.

"I never realized how remarkably difficult it had to have been for you when Mom and Dad died." Leah explained, a tired tone weaving through her voice. "To have to explain to someone death; the finite, the permeance. For years after they died, I would catch myself thinking 'I've gotta show momma that, or dad would think this was so cool.' There never really comes a point where it truly sinks in that they are gone."

"Leah." Caroline commanded, her voice cracking under the pressure of the unknown.

"There was a war in the Quarter; it erupted quickly and raged on for several weeks." Leah's fingers stretched out and bent back into her palm, a small nervous tick she still carried even after all these years. "I don't know all the details yet, and I guess that's not important. But—"

"…don't—"

"Klaus is dead."

The words hung thick in the air; vaguely she could see Leah's lips moving, an explanation, a platitude, she wasn't sure. For a moment, her sense heightened and it was almost like being a vampire once more. Clearly, she could hear the water moving through the kitchen pipes, the baby's happy gurgling, the smell of wet grass, the tear gliding down her cheek, the salt of it against her lips. Everything other than what Leah was telling her.

"That's impossible." Caroline determined after a moment. She would refuse to accept that. 

_2120_

 _She wasn't expecting the warmth of a hand to slip into her own palm. The fall air was crisp around her sitting next to the open grave, the casket lowering at an agonizing almost taunting pace. Without even a second glance she squeezed the fingers as they interlaced with hers taking great comfort in her presence._

 _Leah was much like her mother; kind and strong with an unwavering loyalty to Caroline despite the invisible line of witch versus vampire. She was getting much older now, Caroline noted but still held Bonnie's eyes and Enzo's grin. With perfect recall, she could still remember when they had switched positions to bury Leah's parents. Caroline held her as a baby, and now full with gray hair and a stiff hip, Leah was the one holding her._

 _Grief she was beginning to understand in a more abstract way. The death of her mother had been the catalyst and every subsequent one added another layer. Time was an infinite stretch in front of her now and without the release of her own demise, each death punctured just a little bit more. Time and death were fierce lovers, and she knew that both would do their part to seduce her in equal measure. Burying yet another love would not change that._

" _Caroline." Leah unthreaded their joined palms and replaced the sweat of her hand with a smooth glass vial. "Momma wanted you to have this. She told me I would know when the right time to give it to you."_

 _Caroline snapped from her reverie and rolled the vessel in her hand gingerly. A swarm of emotions bubbled to the surface and was surprised to find that there was room for discussion in her head for all of them. She wasn't sure when the thought of becoming human had planted itself in there, but as the seeds of grief were watered by yet another death, the roots began to form. Even in the grey of the day, the red of the cure was vibrant in her hand._

" _What do I do with this?" Caroline's voice cracked as the whisper escaped her lips. It sounded more like a plea than a question; a desperation for a directive. "What does this accomplish?"_

" _I've tried everything." The heaviness of defeat soaked through Leah's words. "I've reached out to every witch contact I know, poured through all the grimoires. I don't know what this curse is. I don't know if this ever gets better for you."_

 _It was only then that Caroline knew what her suggestion was._

" _So," a small sob escaped Caroline's chest. "I take the cure just to outrun time and find relief for all of the… the loss I've suffered?"_

 _Leah cleared her throat, her attention diverted to the dirt being piled onto of the casket. "I don't know what that decision is like for you. You knew my mom and dad better than anyone; Mom slowed her aging to let dad catch up so they could be together. She used to tell me about how they went back and forth for like a year on whether he would take the cure or he would turn her. Caroline, time is constant. It doesn't bend around the bad things that happen to us. I think for my parents they realized a finite but rich life was the best option for them. I just think that there's something sweet about the inevitability that things get better because there's simply no more time to be awful anymore."_

 _Caroline cupped Leah's cheek, her never changing fingers smoothing over the wrinkles in the corner of her eyes. "You're not slowing down at all are you?" Leah shook her head in a soft 'no'. "This will never end as long as I'm petrified in time, will it?"_

She didn't even realize that baby had been put down for a nap, didn't recall how she ended curled up in a bud, her head laying on Leah's lap. There had been screaming and arguing, pleading that this was some violent dream that she could be able to wake up from. She knew the consequences of taking the cure meant a slim hope to be with him, but it never occurred with her that there would be a world he didn't exist at all.

"I didn't see a dove." She whispered, Leah's warm and calloused hands threading through the locks of her hair. "He can't be gone."

It had been Caroline wrapping her body around a teenage Leah when Bonnie and Enzo had perished in a car accident so may years prior. It had been Caroline to take the sullen teenage in; wrangling a new and particularly painful grief in with trying to help a developing witch and growing young woman find a solid ground. Now, it had come full circle as Leah hummed lowly as Caroline cried.

"I can't even turn it off." she sniffled the realization hitting her two-fold, the back of her cardigan rubbing the edge of her nose. "My humanity. Did you know vampires could do that?" she explained further, unsure of where the idea had latched into her. "I only did it once, when my mother died. I just—I had never felt such a hole inside of me and I just didn't know where to put that. I never thought of turning it off again; not when Stefan died, or when the girls passed away, or when we lost your mom and dad. And now… I can't."

Her words hung thickly between them.

"I know, that's insane for me to even think that." Her hands run across the bulbs of her cheeks, sweeping away the tears. "I've lost so much and it's so selfish to even consider, to even _want_ that, but—" she took a breath, setting up on the couch to look at Leah. "I walked away from him to be safe, I stayed away to be careful, and all these years, all the time spent apart was for nothing."

"Not for nothing, honey." Leah cupped her cheek softly. "You have two babies and more love in the last 7 years that anyone would strive for."

"I don't accept this." She swallowed hard, shaking her head. "I don't accept another person to grieve for. He's immortal!" she shouted, leaping up from the couch. It was irrational; she was pacing and arguing about the death of Klaus in front of her wedding photo to another man. "Hell, I was part of half a dozen schemes myself to kill him and he _**never**_ died!"

"I saw it for myself." Leah said, her back sinking against the pillows of the couch. The finality in her words, stopped Caroline in her tracks. "He laid in state for 5 days in his enemies camp until his siblings took him away. There was quite the scrimmage over that, but the Originals gained the upper hand then."

"When did this happen?"

"Two weeks ago." Leah confirmed. "I don't know all the specifics, but it was a war that had been brewing for some time."

"He could have jumped bodies!" Caroline reasoned; her pacing resumed a humorless laugh escaping. "He did that before when we tried to kill him. Our first kiss was because he weaseled his way into my boyfriend's body."

"Caroline—"

"No! Ok?" Caroline screamed, her palms clenching at her sides. "Just, give this to me okay? I didn't just stay away from him for 75 years and suffered death after death to be dealt the final blow of his, okay? This is just not okay," she swallowed another sob, the words sticking in her throat. "okay?"

Leah stood, placing her hands on Caroline's shoulders. "Okay."

"There's not a place for this here." She cried, pumping her fist against her chest. "I did not make room for him here. I didn't think I had to. Everyone else, everyone—they were human, or old, or, you know something inevitable. How do I grieve for him?"

X-x-X

In the months since he had left, it had been the tiny moments she had to herself; soaking a bubble bath, or knitting a blanket that she gave permission to think of Klaus. She had drawn comfort knowing that not only was he safe in whatever curse was still lingering around her, but that he emphatically understood her choice. She could rest easy in the knowledge that he would not resent her and that the life they had shared in those few and far between moments would always have to be enough to sustain.

It had been days since Leah's visit; she had made her tea and cradled her as Caroline had cried. She had taken the brunt of the baby duties, and Caroline's oscillating emotions; extreme rage and uncontrollable sorrow. It had been Leah's suggestion to take Liam for the week to give Caroline the space to mourn properly, an act she was most grateful for.

Wrapping an old cardigan around her torso, she slipped out onto the back deck sinking into the one of the chairs. It had been quite some time since she had been left to her own thoughts and devices; without the chatter and chaos of having two children. Getting out of bed the last few mornings had been tedious and the ache within her was relentless and heavy; she felt herself downing within the vastness of it all.

With a sigh, she tugged on the lid of box in front of her, the lid finally giving away to open up to its contents. The box had been spelled by Bonnie years ago to only show its contents to Caroline, the treasure and mementos too important to be shared with anyone else. Her mother's badge rested atop black and white photos of her wedding day. Underneath were lockets of Josie and Lizzie first haircuts and a friendship bracelet she had shared with Bonnie from elementary school.

In a separate, smaller box were her keepsakes of Klaus. The bracelet her had bribed her with so many years prior. Various portraits he had drawn of her, much too generous in his depiction of her. She had pressed the sunflowers from their first meet up in between wax paper and could still feel them pressed between their two bodies has she had hugged him that day. A photobooth strip of the two of them at Disneyland feel out as she pulled the stack of letters from the bottom of the box. Thumbing through the small stack, she finally found the one that she had been searching for.

" _You're up early."_

 _Klaus grinned, his dimples deepening on one cheek as he turned. He watched as she gracefully sauntered into his studio, the morning yellow dawning on the horizon. Her hair was short, falling just below her ears and she was surprised at just how much it suited her and how much he liked it. She sank into a nearby arm chair, crossing her bare legs and gingerly sipping her steaming coffee with both hands._

" _I didn't go to sleep._ "

 _She quirked up an eyebrow. "I've been sharing a bed with you for many years, I know when you don't sleep beside me."_

" _Are you cross with me?" She offered him her cup which he gratefully took. "How can I amend myself?"_

 _A rueful smile crossed her face. "Draw me like one of your French girls?"_

 _Deep and spirited laughs bellowed from him as he handed her back her mug. "You've watched that bloody movie one too many times, love."_

" _You could stay."_

 _The words caught him off guard, she could tell as he took in a haggard breath and tilted his head. "That's a first." He commented, sinking down onto the stool in front of his canvas. The harsh waves of the morning tide of the Atlantic could be heard through the opened balcony doors, the reminder of the storm that had swept through the night before. He cut his eyes up to study her through his lashes, a thoughtful expression gracing his features. It wasn't often that he couldn't read her. "Where's your mind at, sweetheart?"_

 _She shrugged delicately, the words tumbling out in soft tone. "You like the lobster here."_

" _I do."_

" _You won't admit it, but you enjoy fishing. Not quite as exciting as hunting, but you like the quiet of it, I think."_

 _He nodded and motioned for her to continue. A flock of birds sang as they flew by the windows._

" _We could be happy."_

 _There time in Maine had been filled with peaceful mornings and adventure filled afternoons. Klaus had taught her how to cook creole; his torso against her body as he directed her hands from behind her. Dinners had been on the deck of the house overlooking the water, aged red wine being sipped between them as he regaled her of stories from along his history. Weekends were lazy; sunbathing on the sand and skinny dipping in the warm ocean surf. It had been the longest they had spent together at that point, and Caroline could feel the pull of something more, something final that could keep her rooted in place._

 _He swallowed, understanding finally reaching him. "You've never wanted this before. I always assumed you rather liked the chase of it all."_

" _Well that was before you planted the rose bushes and made me blueberry pancakes for breakfast." She grinned, the salt of the air filling her lungs. "I know this is out of the blue and we've never talked about this—"_

" _You've never asked me to stay." He interrupted, the words a soft timbre against the tremble building inside of him. Nervously, a trait Caroline was proud she could bring out in him, he began to fiddle with the paint brushes resting on his easel. "Where is this coming from?"_

" _These last few months have made me think." She got up slowly, tiptoeing across the old hardwood to him. Winding his hands around the waist, his palms grazing the skin just below her shirt, she threaded her fingers through his tousled curls. Giving a gentle tug, she tilted his head up to look at her. He watched the lump slide down her throat. "I love you. I think, I know you know that. This is just a small vision of what we could have together. I know I've been so afraid of it before; unwilling to bend or consider, but I'm now Klaus. I'm not asking you give up the power or the glory, or the wars—"_

" _Aren't you?" his voice rose and splintered infinitesimally at his interruption. "Caroline there's so much I have enjoyed quite thoroughly about our time together."_

 _She shrank away from him, but he gripped her elbows to keep her in place. "But it's not enough."_

 _It wasn't as if this wasn't a distinct possibility. For years she had rejected him, kept him at arm's length, put on the chase. It had always been her calling the shots on when and where and how long. He had never turned her down in the years they had spent together, had never been anything but gracious in carving out time in his life to accommodate her. She didn't want to settle just yet, she just wanted to possibility of something more with them._

" _It's more than enough." He implored, his hand snaking up the side of her neck to palm her jaw. "It's not just about the power and the glory; I have businesses to tend to, a family that needs me. If I didn't have obligations or loyalties that need nurturing and attention…"_

" _Yeah." Caroline nodded, a single tear releasing itself without her permission. She smiled tightly, her hands running against the plane of his chest. "I understand."_

" _I can't just shirk away from my responsibilities." His explanation was valid and fair, but still felt hollow with her in his arms. "Besides, we'll have Paris in a couple of months." He kissed her tenderly on the lips before brushing his against her forehead. "I love you, Caroline. I will always find my way back to you."_

They had parted on an uneasy foundation a few days later. Caroline had stayed behind to clean up and shutter up the house. Small touches from their time together haunted her as she moved from room to room. Food stuck to the underside of the cabinet; a remnant of one of their food fights. Sheets ripped in the master bedroom. A half-finished portrait neatly on a canvas, the shape of her eyes a prominent outline.

It was a few weeks later when she had decided to send him a fishing pole as a joke. He had responded promptly with the deed to the house they had rented in Maine, a simple note attached.

However long it takes…

Yours, Klaus

The sun was sinking into the horizon just beyond the mountains and twilight was filling up the sky around her. Stars twinkled on the edge of the pinks and orange produced by the sun, the air crackling with one of the last cold bites of winter. The box had been pieced back together some time before and sheltered back into its place on the top shelf of her closet. She had kept the photo strip, her thumb brushing over their happy faces as it kept the place in the book she was attempting to read. She was only two chapters into her current novel and so engrossed in the murder mystery that she didn't notice him at the base of the steps until he cleared his throat.

"Hello, love."


End file.
